- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

PRX Quantum

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

On-Chip Levitated Neon Particle Arrays for Robust and Scalable Electron Qubits

Sosuke Inui1,2,*, Yinghe Qi1,2,*, Yiming Xing1,2,*, Charles Peretti1,2, Dafei Jin3, and Wei Guo1,2,†

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: wguo@magnet.fsu.edu
PDF

PRX Quantum 7, 033019 – Published 29 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/j7mn-x9f2

Abstract

Electron-on-neon (eNe) qubits have recently emerged as a compelling platform for quantum computing, which combines the vacuum isolation advantages of trapped-ion qubits with the good scaling prospects of superconducting circuits. In current implementations, electrons are trapped in vacuum above a solid neon film deposited on superconducting microwave resonators, where they exhibit strong coupling to the resonators, long coherence times, and high single-qubit gate fidelities. A central challenge, however, is the spontaneous binding of electrons to neon surface bumps. These bumps, originating from substrate roughness, vary in size: electrons on bumps of suitable sizes within the resonator can couple to microwave photons and function as qubits, whereas those on unfavorable bumps remain inactive yet contribute to background charge noise. Moreover, both the bump landscape and the sites where electrons bind differ from run to run, leading to variable qubit characteristics that hinder scalability. To address this challenging issue, we present an on-chip magnetic-levitation architecture in which arrays of solid-neon microparticles are suspended above the processor chip to act as electron carriers. This design eliminates substrate effects while retaining strong qubit-resonator coupling and supporting inter-qubit connectivity. Our analysis further shows that the qubit transition frequency can be tuned across the gigahertz range and its anharmonicity can reach ∼0.8  GHz by tuning the resonator bias voltage. Together, these features suggest a promising pathway toward robust, reproducible, and scalable eNe-based quantum computing.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Popular Summary

Building a powerful quantum computer requires qubits that are stable, easy to control, and manufacturable at large scale, yet no existing platform meets all these requirements simultaneously. Solid-state qubits suffer from materials imperfections that limit coherence, while atomic qubits demand complex trapping systems that are difficult to scale. A promising alternative has recently emerged in the form of electrons hovering above solid neon, which combine the cleanliness of atomic systems with the chip-level integration of solid-state devices. However, this approach encounters a major obstacle: electrons can become stuck on tiny, randomly formed bumps on the neon surface, leading to unpredictable performance from one device to the next. In this work, we introduce a strategy that avoids this problem entirely by levitating microscopic neon particles above the chip using patterned superconducting loops. These particles provide an exceptionally smooth and clean surface for holding a single electron, enabling well-controlled qubits that couple naturally to on-chip microwave circuits and to each other. More broadly, this levitated-carrier approach opens possibilities for constructing hybrid quantum technologies that combine the advantages of quantum materials, atomic isolation, and integrated microwave control.

Article Text

References (88)

  1. T. D. Ladd, F. Jelezko, R. Laflamme, Y. Nakamura, C. Monroe, and J. L. O’Brien, Quantum computers, Nature (London) 464, 45 (2010).
  2. F. A. Zwanenburg, A. S. Dzurak, A. Morello, M. Y. Simmons, L. C. L. Hollenberg, G. Klimeck, S. Rogge, S. N. Coppersmith, and M. A. Eriksson, Silicon quantum electronics, Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 961 (2013).
  3. M. Atatüre, D. Englund, N. Vamivakas, S.-Y. Lee, and J. Wrachtrup, Material platforms for spin-based photonic quantum technologies, Nat. Rev. Mater. 3, 38 (2018).
  4. V. V. Dobrovitski, G. D. Fuchs, A. L. Falk, C. Santori, and D. D. Awschalom, Quantum control over single spins in diamond, Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 4, 23 (2013).
  5. P. Goldner, A. Ferrier, and O. Guillot-Noël, Rare earth-doped crystals for quantum information processing, Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, edited by J.-C. G. Bünzli and V. K. Pecharsky (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2015), Vol. 46, pp. 1–78.
  6. Ádám Gali, Ab initio theory of the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond, Nanophotonics 8, 1907 (2019).
  7. T. Zhong and P. Goldner, Emerging rare-earth doped material platforms for quantum nanophotonics, Nanophotonics 8, 2003 (2019).
  8. N. P. de Leon, K. M. Itoh, D. Kim, K. K. Mehta, T. E. Northup, H. Paik, B. S. Palmer, N. Samarth, S. Sangtawesin, and D. W. Steuerman, Materials challenges and opportunities for quantum computing hardware, Science 372, eabb2823 (2021).
  9. I. L. Markov, Limits on fundamental limits to computation, Nature (London) 512, 147 (2014).
  10. A. Singh, K. Dev, H. Siljak, H. D. Joshi, and M. Magarini, Quantum internet—applications, functionalities, enabling technologies, challenges, and research directions, IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutorials 23, 2218 (2021).
  11. A. Wallraff, D. I. Schuster, A. Blais, L. Frunzio, R.-S. Huang, J. Majer, S. Kumar, S. M. Girvin, and R. J. Schoelkopf, Strong coupling of a single photon to a superconducting qubit using circuit quantum electrodynamics, Nature (London) 431, 162 (2004).
  12. A. Blais, A. L. Grimsmo, S. M. Girvin, and A. Wallraff, Circuit quantum electrodynamics, Rev. Mod. Phys. 93, 25005 (2021).
  13. Y. Nakamura, Y. A. Pashkin, and J. S. Tsai, Coherent control of macroscopic quantum states in a single-cooper-pair box, Nature (London) 398, 786 (1999).
  14. R. J. Schoelkopf and S. M. Girvin, Wiring up quantum systems, Nature (London) 451, 664 (2008).
  15. J. Clarke and F. K. Wilhelm, Superconducting quantum bits, Nature (London) 453, 1031 (2008).
  16. F. Arute et al., Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor, Nature (London) 574, 505 (2019).
  17. M. Kjaergaard, M. E. Schwartz, J. Braumüller, P. Krantz, J. I.-J. Wang, S. Gustavsson, and W. D. Oliver, Superconducting qubits: Current state of play, Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 11, 369 (2020).
  18. P. Krantz, M. Kjaergaard, F. Yan, T. P. Orlando, S. Gustavsson, and W. D. Oliver, A quantum engineer’s guide to superconducting qubits, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 21318 (2019).
  19. G. Wendin, Quantum information processing with superconducting circuits: A review, Rep. Prog. Phys. 80, 106001 (2017).
  20. J. M. Gambetta, J. M. Chow, and M. Steffen, Building logical qubits in a superconducting quantum computing system, npj Quantum Inf. 3, 2 (2017).
  21. I. Siddiqi, Engineering high-coherence superconducting qubits, Nat. Rev. Mater. 6, 875 (2021).
  22. C. Wang, X. Li, H. Xu, Z. Li, J. Wang, Z. Yang, Z. Mi, X. Liang, T. Su, C. Yang et al., Towards practical quantum computers: Transmon qubit with a lifetime approaching 0.5 milliseconds, npj Quantum Inf. 8, 3 (2022).
  23. C. Monroe, D. M. Meekhof, B. E. King, W. M. Itano, and D. J. Wineland, Demonstration of a fundamental quantum logic gate, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4714 (1995).
  24. D. Kielpinski, C. Monroe, and D. J. Wineland, Architecture for a large-scale ion-trap quantum computer, Nature (London) 417, 709 (2002).
  25. D. Leibfried, R. Blatt, C. Monroe, and D. Wineland, Quantum dynamics of single trapped ions, Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 281 (2003).
  26. J. M. Pino, J. M. Dreiling, C. Figgatt, J. P. Gaebler, S. A. Moses, M. S. Allman, C. H. Baldwin, M. Foss-Feig, D. Hayes, K. Mayer, C. Ryan-Anderson, and B. Neyenhuis, Demonstration of the trapped-ion quantum CCD computer architecture, Nature (London) 592, 209 (2021).
  27. C. D. Bruzewicz, J. Chiaverini, R. McConnell, and J. M. Sage, Trapped-ion quantum computing: Progress and challenges, Appl. Phys. Rev. 6, 21314 (2019).
  28. K. R. Brown, J. Chiaverini, J. M. Sage, and H. Häffner, Materials challenges for trapped-ion quantum computers, Nat. Rev. Mater. 6, 892 (2021).
  29. P. M. Platzman and M. I. Dykman, Quantum computing with electrons floating on liquid helium, Science 284, 1967 (1999).
  30. D. I. Schuster, A. Fragner, M. I. Dykman, S. A. Lyon, and R. J. Schoelkopf, Proposal for manipulating and detecting spin and orbital states of trapped electrons on helium using cavity quantum electrodynamics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 40503 (2010).
  31. G. Koolstra, G. Yang, and D. I. Schuster, Coupling a single electron on superfluid helium to a superconducting resonator, Nat. Commun. 10, 5323 (2019).
  32. E. Kawakami, A. Elarabi, and D. Konstantinov, Image-charge detection of the Rydberg states of surface electrons on liquid helium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 86801 (2019).
  33. J. Wang, H. Edlbauer, B. Jadot, T. Meunier, S. Takada, C. Bäuerle, and H. Sellier, Electron qubits surfing on acoustic waves: Review of recent progress, J. Phys. D 58, 23002 (2025).
  34. N. R. Beysengulov, S. D. Bilek, J. B. Flaten, O. Leinonen, M. Hjorth-Jensen, J. Pollanen, H. E. Kristiansen, Z. J. Stewart, J. D. Weidman, and A. K. Wilson, Coulomb interaction-driven entanglement of electrons on helium, PRX Quantum 5, 30324 (2024).
  35. W. Guo, D. Konstantinov, and D. Jin, Quantum electronics on quantum liquids and solids, Prog. Quantum Electron. 99, 100552 (2025).
  36. M. W. Cole, Properties of image-potential-induced surface states of insulators, Phys. Rev. B 2, 4239 (1970).
  37. M. W. Cole, Electronic surface states of a dielectric film on a metal substrate, Phys. Rev. B 3, 4418 (1971).
  38. M. W. Cole and M. H. Cohen, Image-potential-induced surface bands in insulators, Phys. Rev. Lett. 23, 1238 (1969).
  39. D. Jin, Quantum electronics and optics at the interface of solid neon and superfluid helium, Quantum Sci. Technol. 5, 35003 (2020).
  40. K. E. Castoria, N. R. Beysengulov, G. Koolstra, H. Byeon, E. O. Glen, M. Sammon, S. A. Lyon, J. Pollanen, and D. G. Rees, Sensing and control of single trapped electrons above 1 K, Phys. Rev. X 15, 041002 (2025).
  41. G. Koolstra, E. O. Glen, N. R. Beysengulov, H. Byeon, K. E. Castoria, M. Sammon, B. Dizdar, C. S. Wang, D. I. Schuster, S. A. Lyon, J. Pollanen, and D. G. Rees, High-impedance resonators for strong coupling to an electron on helium, Phys. Rev. Appl. 23, 024001 (2025).
  42. J.-Y. Lin, T. Tani, M. Belianchikov, and D. Konstantinov, Sensitive detection of the Rydberg transition in trapped electrons on liquid helium using radio-frequency reflectometry, arXiv:2510.22615.
  43. X. Zhou, G. Koolstra, X. Zhang, G. Yang, X. Han, B. Dizdar, X. Li, R. Divan, W. Guo, K. W. Murch, D. I. Schuster, and D. Jin, Single electrons on solid neon as a solid-state qubit platform, Nature (London) 605, 46 (2022).
  44. X. Zhou, X. Li, Q. Chen, G. Koolstra, G. Yang, B. Dizdar, Y. Huang, C. S. Wang, X. Han, and X. Zhang, Electron charge qubit with 0.1 millisecond coherence time, Nat. Phys. 20, 116 (2024).
  45. Q. Chen, I. Martin, L. Jiang, and D. Jin, Electron spin coherence on a solid neon surface, Quantum Sci. Technol. 7, 045016 (2022).
  46. T. Kanai, D. Jin, and W. Guo, Single-electron qubits based on quantum ring states on solid neon surface, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 250603 (2024).
  47. K. Zheng, X. Song, and K. W. Murch, Surface-morphology-assisted trapping of strongly coupled electron-on-neon charge states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 080601 (2025).
  48. K. Matkovic, P. Russell, A. Palmer, E. Helgemo, L. Delventhal, K. Zuo, K. Surse, R. Rahman, and M. C. Cassidy, Characterizing neon thin film growth with an nbtin superconducting resonator array, arXiv:2510.21029.
  49. S. Duthaluru, K. Zheng, E. A. Henriksen, and K. W. Murch,Real-time monitoring of neon film growth for electron-on-neon qubits, arXiv:2511.20765.
  50. M. A. Weilert, D. L. Whitaker, H. J. Maris, and G. M. Seidel, Magnetic levitation and noncoalescence of liquid helium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4840 (1996).
  51. D. L. Whitaker, Investigations of levitated helium drops, Ph.D. thesis, Brown University, 1999).
  52. M. A. Weilert, D. L. Whitaker, H. J. Maris, and G. M. Seidel, Magnetic levitation of liquid helium, J. Low Temp. Phys. 106, 101 (1997).
  53. H. Sanavandi and W. Guo, A magnetic levitation based low-gravity simulator with an unprecedented large functional volume, npj Microgravity 7, 40 (2021).
  54. D. Larbalestier, A. Gurevich, D. M. Feldmann, and A. Polyanskii, High-Tc superconducting materials for electric power applications, Nature (London) 414, 368 (2001).
  55. S. R. Foltyn, Q. X. Jia, P. N. Arendt, L. Kinder, Y. Fan, and J. F. Smith, Relationship between film thickness and the critical current of YBa2Cu3O7−δ-coated conductors, Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 3692 (1999).
  56. C. Zhang, D. Wang, Z.-H. Liu, Y. Zhang, P. Ma, Q.-R. Feng, Y. Wang, and Z.-Z. Gan, Fabrication of superconducting nanowires from ultrathin MgB2 films via focused ion beam milling, AIP Adv. 5, 027139 (2015).
  57. A. Stangl, A. Palau, G. Deutscher, X. Obradors, and T. Puig, Ultra-high critical current densities of superconducting YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin films in the overdoped state, Sci. Rep. 11, 8176 (2021).
  58. G. Majkic, R. Pratap, A. Xu, E. Galstyan, and V. Selvamanickam, Over 15  MA/cm2 of critical current density in 4.8  μm thick, zr-doped (Gd, Y) Ba2Cu3Ox superconductor at 30 K, 3 T, Sci. Rep. 8, 6982 (2018).
  59. E. K. Hollmann, O. G. Vendik, A. G. Zaitsev, and B. T. Melekh, Substrates for high-Tc superconductor microwave integrated circuits, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 7, 609 (1994).
  60. J. M. Phillips, Substrate selection for high-temperature superconducting thin films, J. Appl. Phys. 79, 1829 (1996).
  61. I. Jin, C.-H. Chen, S. P. Pai, B. Ming, D. J. Kang, T. Venkatesan, F. Machalett, K. Edinger, J. Orloff, and J. Melngailis, Fabrication of hts Josephson junctions on substrates prepared by focused ion beam system, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 9, 2894 (1999).
  62. S. J. Pearton and D. P. Norton, Dry etching of electronic oxides, polymers, and semiconductors, Plasma Process. Polym. 2, 16 (2005).
  63. B. T. Buijtendorp, S. Vollebregt, K. Karatsu, D. J. Thoen, V. Murugesan, K. Kouwenhoven, S. Hähnle, J. J. A. Baselmans, and A. Endo, Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide: A low-loss deposited dielectric for microwave to submillimeter-wave superconducting circuits, Phys. Rev. Appl. 18, 064003 (2022).
  64. N. Samkharadze, A. Bruno, P. Scarlino, G. Zheng, D. P. DiVincenzo, L. DiCarlo, and L. M. K. Vandersypen, High-kinetic-inductance superconducting nanowire resonators for circuit QED in a magnetic field, Phys. Rev. Appl. 5, 044004 (2016).
  65. G. L. Pollack, The solid state of rare gases, Rev. Mod. Phys. 36, 748 (1964).
  66. C. D. Brown, Y. Wang, M. Namazi, G. I. Harris, M. T. Uysal, and J. G. E. Harris, Superfluid helium drops levitated in high vacuum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 216001 (2023).
  67. S. C. Colbeck, An overview of seasonal snow metamorphism, Rev. Geophys. 20, 45 (1982).
  68. K. F. Niebel, J. A. Venables, and C. A. Coulson, An explanation of the crystal structure of the rare gas solids, Proc. R. Soc. A 336, 365 (1997).
  69. J. Hofer, R. Gross, G. Higgins, H. Huebl, O. F. Kieler, R. Kleiner, D. Koelle, P. Schmidt, J. A. Slater, M. Trupke, K. Uhl, T. Weimann, W. Wieczorek, and M. Aspelmeyer, High-q magnetic levitation and control of superconducting microspheres at millikelvin temperatures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 043603 (2023).
  70. J. Bang, T. Seberson, P. Ju, J. Ahn, Z. Xu, X. Gao, F. Robicheaux, and T. Li, Five-dimensional cooling and nonlinear dynamics of an optically levitated nanodumbbell, Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 043054 (2020).
  71. G. Yang, A. Fragner, G. Koolstra, L. Ocola, D. A. Czaplewski, R.  J. Schoelkopf, and D. I. Schuster, Coupling an ensemble of electrons on superfluid helium to a superconducting circuit, Phys. Rev. X 6, 11031 (2016).
  72. K. D. Petersson, L. W. McFaul, M. D. Schroer, M. Jung, J. M. Taylor, A. A. Houck, and J. R. Petta, Circuit quantum electrodynamics with a spin qubit, Nature (London) 490, 380 (2012).
  73. A. D. Armour, M. P. Blencowe, E. Brahimi, and A. J. Rimberg, Universal quantum fluctuations of a cavity mode driven by a Josephson junction, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 247001 (2013).
  74. B. Schmidt and B. Friedrich, Supersymmetry and eigensurface topology of the spherical quantum pendulum, Phys. Rev. A 91, 022111 (2015).
  75. J. H. Kim, I. D. Vagner, and B. Sundaram, Electrons confined on the surface of a sphere in a magnetic field, Phys. Rev. B 46, 9501 (1992).
  76. G. Ithier, E. Collin, P. Joyez, P. J. Meeson, D. Vion, D. Esteve, F. Chiarello, A. Shnirman, Y. Makhlin, J. Schriefl, and G. Schön, Decoherence in a superconducting quantum bit circuit, Phys. Rev. B 72, 134519 (2005).
  77. J. Majer, J. M. Chow, J. M. Gambetta, J. Koch, B. R. Johnson, J. A. Schreier, L. Frunzio, D. I. Schuster, A. A. Houck, A. Wallraff, A. Blais, M. H. Devoret, S. M. Girvin, and R. J. Schoelkopf, Coupling superconducting qubits via a cavity bus, Nature (London) 449, 443 (2007).
  78. N. Bar-Gill, L. M. Pham, A. Jarmola, D. Budker, and R. L. Walsworth, Solid-state electronic spin coherence time approaching one second, Nat. Commun. 4, 1743 (2013).
  79. A. M. Tyryshkin, S. Tojo, J. J. L. Morton, H. Riemann, N. V. Abrosimov, P. Becker, H.-J. Pohl, T. Schenkel, M. L. W. Thewalt, K. M. Itoh, and S. A. Lyon, Electron spin coherence exceeding seconds in high-purity silicon, Nat. Mater. 11, 143 (2011).
  80. E. Kawakami, J. Chen, Mónica Benito, and D. Konstantinov, Blueprint for quantum computing using electrons on helium, Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 054022 (2023).
  81. T. Böttger, C. W. Thiel, R. L. Cone, and Y. Sun, Effects of magnetic field orientation on optical decoherence in Er3+:  Y2SiO5, Phys. Rev. B 79, 115104 (2009).
  82. S. Probst, H. Rotzinger, A. V. Ustinov, and P. A. Bushev, Microwave multimode memory with an erbium spin ensemble, Phys. Rev. B 92, 14421 (2015).
  83. S. Ourari, S. P. Horvath, M. T. Uysal, C. M. Phenicie, P. Stevenson, M. Raha, S. Chen, R. J. Cava, N. P. de Leon, and J. D. Thompson, Indistinguishable telecom band photons from a single Er ion in the solid state, Nature (London) 620, 977 (2023).
  84. K. R. Atkins, Ions in liquid helium, Phys. Rev. 116, 1339 (1959).
  85. W. W. Johnson and W. I. Glaberson, Positive impurity ions in He II, Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 214 (1972).
  86. M. T. Uysal, L. Dusanowski, H. Xu, S. P. Horvath, S. Ourari, R. J. Cava, N. P. de Leon, and J. D. Thompson, Spin-photon entanglement of a single Er3+ ion in the telecom band, Phys. Rev. X 15, 011071 (2025).
  87. J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics, 3rd ed. (Wiley, New York, 1999).
  88. J. J. Sakurai and J. Napolitano, Modern Quantum Mechanics, 3rd ed. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2020).

Outline

Information

PRX Quantum 7, 033019– Published 29 July, 2026
  • Received 30 November 2025
  • Revised 26 May 2026
  • Accepted 3 June 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation